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Where Medicine Originates Complicates Oversight

Washington, D.C – The controversy that has plagued drugs such as Heparin, which is created in the nation of China, has led to calls for increased supervision of the manufacturing drug process in the United States and Internationally.

Many medications are created and take a long tortured route before they come to the United States and Europe for retail sale. Sometimes a drug will pass through several sets of hands, and it is this long complicated process that has many both in the industry and Government alarmed.

It’s a drug market that is global, and the effort is to speed medications to patients that need them. But sometimes it’s a supply chain that is Byzantine in its myriad twists and turns, and there is no one clear oversight organization that has power or clear authority.

The system of regulation is just inadequate for the majority of the drugs that are now on the world scene.

“It is simply a base fact that our FDA is not equipped to protect us from drugs and food that is unsafe,” said Representative John D. Dingell (D-Michigan).

A series of hearings on Capitol Hill are beginning on Tuesday to investigate the situation and to try and illuminate what the problem is. The FDA is trying valiantly in many cases, but they are faced with a worldwide market and suppliers from around the world, which makes their task nearly impossible at times.